SB 401 
S72 
Copy 1 



[3 
The Tree 

That Yields 
For 100 Years 




Southern Nut Nursery Co. 



Capital $300,000.00 



BRARYof CONGiitSS 
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KANSAS CITY, MO. 



h. E. Chase, Pres. 

A. J. Marchant, Treas 



OFFICERS 

F. C. Bingham, Vice-Pres. 
E. M. Treaki.e, 

Sec'y and Gen'l Mgr. 



SOUTHERN NUT NURSERY COMPANY 
We are propagators, planters and cultivators 
of orchard trees. The planting and cultivation 
of orchards for non-residents is our specialty. 
We have been instrumental in the successful 
planting and bringing into maturity and the prof- 
itable handling of the crops thereof of a large 
acreage of orchards, both on the Pacific Coast 
and in the Mississippi Valley. 

We wish to plant one or more acres of fancy 
paper-shell pecan orchard for you and take care 
of it in a practical and scientific manner for a pe- 
riod of five years. Price of orchard $150.00 per 
acre. First cash payment $10.00 per acre and 
fifty-six payments of $2.50 per acre per month. 
No interest will be charged on deferred pay- 
ments. We will issue a bond for deed covering 
in detail what we are to do and what you are to 
do and at any time you finish paying for same 
warranty deed will be issued to you for same. 
This bond for deed will also recite that you shall 
receive from us four per cent per annum on all 
moneys paid by you, for a period not exceeding 
five years from date of contract. 

REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD BUY 

There are seven good and sufficient reasons 
why you should contract with us to plant this or- 
chard for you : 

First. When the pecan begins bearing, it re- 
quires no more attention. It takes care of itself, 
which cannot be truthfully said of any other or- 
chard tree. 

Second. The pecan tree has no material insect 
enemies. 

Third. The nuts are not perishable and can 
be stored and held indefinitely for shipment. 



Fourth. Regularity of crop. There is never a 
year when an orchard does not have a number 
of trees in full bearing. 

Fifth. The pecan lives to a great age. Many 
trees on the lower Mississippi are known to be 
over one hundred years old and are healthy and 
are still bearing large crops of nuts. Pecan trees 
have been cut down showing over six hundred 
annual ring growths. The average peach orchard 
in the United States lasts about eight years, al- 
though in some favored locations they last 
double that number, but a pecan orchard is 
good for a lifetime and that of our children and 
grandchildren. 

Sixth. The high price obtained for the fancy 
paper-shell pecan, which ranges from 20 to 50 
cents per pound wholesale, according to size and 
quality. The wild nut runs in price from 3 1-2 
to 9 cents per pound wholesale. A full bearing 
orchard is making a very low average, when it 
produces only $200.00 per acre, as $500.00 to 
$600.00, and more is often obtained in a good sea- 
son. We can show you tree after tree that pro- 
duces from $.">(). nil to $80.00 per annum, nuts 
sold at wholesale. We know of families whose 
entire living is made on from one to three acres 
of fancy pecans. 

Seventh. The last reason, but not the least 
one, is the fact that it takes a long time to come 
into profitable bearing. The grafted fancy pe- 
can from the nursery, planted in cultivated or- 
chards begins bearing at five years from date of 
planting, the tree being from three to four years 
old when planted, but when planted from the 
seed, it takes from twelve to fifteen years to 
begin bearing. This long time will operate to 
prevent the great mass of people, who live only 
from day to day and only go in for immediate 
profits, from engaging in its culture, thus leav- 
ing the cultivated pecan through the future, as 
it is now, the most sought after and highest 
priced nut in the market. 

If the seven reasons above are true, they ought, 
in our judgment, to satisfy anyone that the pe- 
can is the safest and most profitable orchard that 
can be planted, and, in fact, the safest, the most 
permanent and by far the most profitable invest- 
ment of any character whatsoever now offered 
in this country. We positively know of nothing 
that will begin to compare with the above. From 
the first settlements on the Gulf Coast to date 
there never has been a loss of money on pecan 
orchards. 




A photograph showing exact size of five varieti 



of fancy paper-shell pecans propagated by Southern Nut Nursery Co. Originals and. dup- 
licates shown at any time at our office. 



I ii. re are thousands of men and women 
throughout the country who are anxious to place 
their savings where it will do them some good in 
the way of a permanent income when they grow 
old, or become broken down in health. To peo- 
ple of this character we most earnestly wish we 
knew of some way to convey the actual knowl- 
edge of the truh wonderful vitality, thrift and 
productivity of a pecan orchard in its native 
country and to make them know, as our old cus- 
tomers know, the painstaking care we give to 
the orchards wc cultivate. 

In the planting and growing of orchards we 
are successful, and we can plant and take care 
of a fancy paper-shell pecan orchard for you 
much more economically than you could do so 



yourself, and will turn it over to you at the end 
of five years a perfect orchard requiring nothing 
lint to be left alone. 

In the handling and marketing of perishable 
fruits, there is a constant strain anil worry, as 
well as a great risk, from the thousand and one 
dangers that beset the fruit from the blossom un- 
til it is in the hands of the consumer. Pecans, 
when once rightly established, do not worry you 
— they take care of themselves. 

GATHERING THE CROP 

When the frost comes, in late October or early 
November, the pecans drop to the ground and are 
simply picked up and placed in barrels or sacks 



reach for shipment. No skill 
whatever is required in the 
handling of the crop. October 
and November are the most 
delightful months of the en- 
tire year in Louisiana. No- 
where in all America could 
one enjoy life better than see- 
ing to the gathering of a crop 
of pecans during ( )ctober and 
November in sunny Louis- 
iana. A person can live any- 
where he wishes from Maine 
to California during the elev- 
en months of the year, and 
about ( >ctober 15th he can af- 
ford to spend four weeks at 
his orchard in Louisiana see- 
ing to the gathering of the 
crop. 

< If course it is not neces- 
sary to go to Louisiana to 
harvest the pecans. We, as a 
firm, are prepared after our 
first five-year contract with 
you is completed, to take care 
of your orchard, pay the 
taxes, prevent trespass, gath- 
er the nuts and market them 
and do anything and every- 
thing just the same as we 
take care of our own or- 
chards, rendering you detailed 
statements of exact cost of 
same, and for our services 
will charge you ten per cent 
of the revenue received from 
the land. A person owning 
two acres of pecan orchard in 
full bearing, at a low estimate 
should average $500.00 per 
year income. 

INDIVIDUAL OWNERSHIP 

Although we are a corporation and plant or- 
chards for ourselves, which are not for sale, but 




iiudded paper-shell pecan tree, five years old. 

are kept as a permanent investment by our Com- 
pany, at the same time, the most of the stockhold- 
ers air personally acquainted and have conducted 
successful business in a corporate line heretofore. 



Yet when it comes to planting orchard for the 
general public, we find from practical experience, 
») at it is better for each individual to hold in his 
or her name, their own orchard. They thus have 
absolute control of their property as the) own it 
and have a deed to it and no one else can take it 
iway from them or dictate what policy to pursue. 
The company that dues the planting, cultivation 
and caring for the orchards is directly responsi- 
ble to the owner of each individual orchard and 
there is no chance to shift the responsibility. 
Again, our planting orchards for ourselves, which 
are interspersed with the orchards planted for the 
general public, is a safeguard in that it stands to 
reason we would not neglect our own orchards 
and as the orchards are side by side, it would be 
immediately patent to everyone, if one orchard 
was well taken care of and the other neglected, 
hence, looking over orchards we have heretofore 
planted, you could not tell, if you were not famil 
:;.r with the corners, which was our orchard and 
vhich was the orchard we had built for our cus- 
tomers. Our lands are surveyed and platted b) 
tile County Surveyor so that there can be no 
ciuostion as to ownership of particular tracts. 

LIFE INSURANCE 
In every orchard that we have built it has been 
proposed by different people that we couple life 
irsurance with it so that if a person dies, his es- 
tate would be assured of the orchard. We have 
made it an invariable rule to stick to our knifing 
in that we are orchard people and nothing eise. 
If a person is afraid of dying 1 efore his orchard 
is paid for, it is wise that he should take insurance 
in a company that makes a specialty of life insur- 
ance. Nearly all companies will charge a com- 
paratively small fee to insure you for the five 
\ears necessary to make the payments for our or- 
chard. It is a fact and also the proper thing that 
a life insurance company should insure lives and 
an orchard company should plant orchards. Re- 
cently there has been more or less scandal re- 
vealed in the management of some of the great 
life insurance corporations, which naturally 
makes many timid people afraid of all insurance 
companies. We individrally are believers in life 
insurance to insure life, but not as investment 
companies. In other words a moderate amount 
of life insurance should be carried by each indi- 
vidual who has dependents upon him. hut when 
it comes to making investments for profit, the 
amount of money paid by life insurance compan- 
ies to individuals on investments is extremely 



small and drawn over a long period of years and 
you have to wait from ten to twenty \ears before 
receiving anything. We believe that the great 
mass of insurance companies are sound and be- 
lieve that in a short time the present flurry in in- 
surance circles will have passed away, but if you 
compare the profits of any endowment policy is- 
sued by any company whatsoever as against the 
profits of a pecan orchard, the) sink into insignif- 
icance. They cannot by any means be -is safe as 
a pecan orchard from the fact that pecan orchards 
do not die. are not affected by mismanagement of 
insurance officials, and because, in fact, you own 
the orchard yourself whereas you do not own or 
control the insurance companies. 

One of our old customers writes us that he 
bought five acres of pecan orchard of us for two 
reasons: First, be expected to live long enough 
to enjoy some of the profits of his orchard; and 
secondly, he wanted it as an insurance for his wife 
and family. He says that be believes that a pe- 
can orchard is better than ordinary life insurance, 
because the wife and children get the insurance 
money in a lump, and being inexperienced in the 
use of money, it would in all probability disappear 
in the course of two or three years; whereas, if 
they had. say, five acres of fancy paper-shell 
pecans in full bearing they would get not less 
than $1.01111.110 per annum, year in and year out. 

We are believers in life insurance. A pecan 
orchard is not onlv life insurance, but is a bread- 
winner, and you do not have to die to get the 
benefit of it. 

Under the present conditions of society it is 
almost necessary that every woman, in order to 
protect herself against the future, must know 
how to make a livelihood. Tn no line could any 
woman, even the most delicate, earn a living so 
easily as the owning and managing of a small pe- 
can orchard. 

Most people scent to think five or six years is 
entirely too lout;- to wait for anything, but as a 
matter of fact, .all will have to wait if they are 
alive, whether they buy pecan orchards or not. 

The best business people in the lower South 
have, and are. planting orchards of fancy paper- 
shell pecans. They have the foresight and the 
patience and consequently soon gain a com- 
petence. 

I >ur orchards are planted with trees budded 
from the largest and finest flavored pecans 
known. We give our trees scientific attention 
from the planting of the nut in the nursery to the 
delivering of a grown orchard to the customer. 




. feet in that short ti 



It is just as easy to look after a pecan orchard 
in Louisiana as to look after an investment in the 
next county. The mail, telephone, telegraph and 
railroads bring us all close together. 

LOCATION 

Our orchard lands are located on the banks of 
the Bayou Teche in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, 
being a short distance east of Opelousas, the Par- 
ish seat, and are 120 miles west of New Orleans 
and 36 miles north. The Bayou Teche has been 
celebrated in song; and story. The descendants of 
early Spanish, French, German and English set- 
tlers still live in the land, the English and French 
largely predominating today. Ever since the set- 
tlement of this country hundreds of years ago, 
it has produced enormous crops of sugar cane and 
cotton. The stream is navigable almost from 



end to end and both banks are lined with planta- 
tions, immense sugar houses and fine old South- 
ern colonial mansions. The Bayou Teche, for 
hundreds of vears, was the artery of transporta- 
tion and all the settlements, towns and villages 
are on its banks, the plantations extending back 
to what in Louisiana is called the "Green 
Woods," where the ancient forest still stands vis- 
ible in the distance from the Teche. This land 
acknowledged in succession, the dominion of the 
Spanish, French, British, and finally, and we be- 
lieve permanently, the American. Nowhere in 
the United States is there so much history and ro- 
mance as along this famous stream. You might 
say that almost every plantation house and in 
fact, almost every dwelling along the Teche is 
surrounded by immense pecan trees, many of 
them planted over a century ago, and the banks 



of the Teche, when left to themselves, are covered 
spontaneously by wild pecan groves. The fin- 
est quality of pecans and the most uniform crops 
are borne by these pecan trees along the Teche, 
no place else in our judgment being equal to 
it for quality and productivity. Having been al- 
ways a land of plenty, the hospitality has always 
been and still is of the most bounteous and gen- 
erous character. We know of nowhere in the 
United States where one could make a more en- 
joyable visit than to this district, and nothing 
more pleasing than a boat trip for over a hun- 
dred miles on the Teche. The time of the drop- 
ping of nuts in November is the ideal time for 
a visit to the country of the Teche. 

CHARACTER OF LAND 

Our land used for pecan orchards is unques- 
tionably among the very richest in the world. To 
convey an idea of its richness to Northern people, 
would say if it was located along the Missouri 
River in Missouri or Eastern Kansas, it would 
yield ninety bushels of corn to the acre. In Lou- 
isiana it has a capacity of from thirty to forty 
tons of sugar cane to the acre and a bale to a bale 
and one-half of lint cotton, 500 pounds being a 
standard bale. 

NUMBER OF TREES TO THE ACRE 

We plant nine fancy paper-shell pecan trees 
that have been propagated under our own super- 
vision absolutely true to name, to the acre. This 
number of trees to the acre would make them 75 
feet apart. On the character of land we are 
planting pecans in Louisiana, the trees event- 
ually grow to a height of 175 feet, with 75 feet 
or more spread. On poor lands the trees do not 
grow to such immense sizes, hence they are 
planted closer V gether. The pecan has a pecul- 
iarity of bearing all of its nuts on the terminal 
twigs of the outside limbs, which is the opposite 
of the peach, apple and plum, where the fruit is 
distributed throughout the whole of the tree, 
hence if the pecan trees are planted close togeth- 
er, they will soon form a solid forest top and the 
nut bearing area will only lie equal to tbe square 
of the base of the tree. Rut if the trees are 
planted far enough apart, they form truncated 
cones and everyone knows that the superficial 
area of a cone is a number of times larger than 
the square of its base. Many people talk and 
some plant their pecan orchards with a much 
larger number than we do, talking and figuring 



thai the) will get much more profit from the 
young trees when they first come into bearing, 
than if they were where they should be and they 
intend and believe that they will cut them out 
later on when they begin to grow large, but such 
is the frailty of humanity, that they never do it 
and in over twenty years of commercial orchard 
handling, we have adhered to the rule of put- 
ting a tree where we intended it to stay and we 
never yet have had cause to regret making and 
following this rule. 

PROFITABLENESS OF A FANCY 

PAPER-SHELL PECAN 

ORCHARD 

'Idie pecan is an irregular bearer. Some trees 
will bear large crops three or four years in suc- 
cession and then rest one or two years. Other 
trees bear heavy crops one year and rest the 
next, but an orchard will always have from one- 
third to one-half the trees loaded with a full 
crop, excepting < nee in five, eight or ten years, 
when there is almost a complete failure of crop. 
Many theories are advanced as to the cause of 
this total failure, none of which are fully satis- 
factory, nor generally accepted by those familiar 
with the pecan tree. To those permanently in 
the orchard business the points most carefully 
considered are the average bearing qualities and 
price, covering a series of five or more years. We 
cannot pin our prosperity on an extremely high 
yield one season or lake the other extreme of a 
small crop year, the well balanced person being 
always governed by normal conditions and gen- 
eral averages. 

Until comparatively recent times, the pecan 
was not an article of commerce. People dwell- 
ing in the natural habitat of the pecan, have ever 
since the first settlements by the French and 
Spanish on the lower Mississippi, gathered them 
for home consumption, it being the preferred of 
all nuts of the forest and before their coming, 
they were the nut of nuts to the Indians, but as 
population increased and railroads penetrated 
the country, all kinds of food products became 
more generally distributed until now you find 
pecans on sale in almost every store in the 
United States. The common pecan of commerce 
is the wild nut, gathered mainly in the forests 
of Louisiana and along the streams in Central 
Texas. When the nuts become ripe in the fall, 
thev fall to the ground and men, women and 
children add largely to their income by gather- 



ing these nuts and hauling them in wagon loads 
to the merchant at the nearest railroad station, 
who pays them, depending upon size of crop, 
from 3 1-2 cents to (J or 7 cents per pound. The 
nuts are then shipped by the local buyer to the 
trade centers, where they are graded for size 
and run through polishing machines and slight- 
ly colored and they are then distributed to the 
retail trade at from six to nine cents per pound 
wholesale. These nuts are practically unknown 
outside the United States as few, if any, are ex- 
ported, the local demand being such as to effect- 
ually clean up the annual crops. The pecan is 
one of the products peculiar to America, it nev- 
er having been found outside of the Mississippi 
River Valley and its tributaries, streams in Tex- 
as and Northeastern Mexico flowing into the 
Gulf of 'Mexico. 

In the last few years, this nut has gained 
greatly in popularity. At first the nuts were 
cracked by band and sold as nut meats. As you 
know, they are now on sale at all confectioneries 
and fruit stands and are peddled by newsboys 
on the train as salted pecans. Quite recently ma- 
chines have been invented to crack the nuts so 
that the majority of the meats come out whole. 
One thing that has retarded the universal popu- 
larity of the pecan is the fact that the pith, which 
closely surrounds the pecan meat, is very bitter 
and in the wild nut indentations or convolutions 
of the meat being deep and the pith being frag- 
ile, particles of it stick to the meat, and the 
smallest piece of this pith, when eaten with the 
meat, is to say the least, very disagreeable and 
discouraging. If it were not for this defect, un- 
questionably the wild pecan would be the most 
popular of the nuts. 

We continually read in the newspapers glow- 
ing descriptions of the wonderful results ob- 
tained by the originators of new varieties or the 
crossing and improving of old varieties, yet na- 
ture has been from the beginning making these 
crosses and occasionally its results are superb 
and they are multiplied indefinitely by propaga- 
tion and given to all mankind. In clearing away 
the forests of lower Louisiana, many pecan trees 
were left by the early settlers and the best nuts 
to be found were generally planted around the 
plantation bouses. Out of the thousands and 
thousands of trees now growing on the Gulf 
Coast, we find occasionally a pecan that is away 
above the average of its fellows and out of these 
better nuts we might say that a dozen varieties 
have been selected and have been propagated ex- 



tensively. The main points in the selection of 
a pecan for propagation are : 

First. Regularity in bearing of the parent 
tree. 

Second. Sweetness of kernel. 

Third. Plumpness — that is, the pecan meat 
fully filling shell at both ends. 

Fourth. Shallowness of convolutions — that 
is, smoothness of kernel so that the pith does not 
penetrate deeply. 

Fifth. Thinness of shell. 

Sixth. Size of the pecan. 

The pecans propagated by us have all these 
qualities to a point undreamed of by those who 
are familiar only with the common wild pecan 
of commerce. Our fancy paper-shell pecans are 
as large as a large butter-nut common through- 
out the Northern states, and so thin shelled that 
two placed in the palm of the hand are easily 
cracked by a slight pressure and the entire meat 
taken out free from pith and without mutila- 
tion : and their size, sweetness and delicacy of 
flavor are incomparable to anything in the nut 
line, whether it be wild pecan or any other nut 
of commerce. These qualities being so para- 
mount, they are eagerly sought after by those 
who are acquainted with their excellency, hence 
the nuts not used locally are equally sought af- 
ter by people wishing to make presents to friends 
and by the confectioners in New York City, who 
pay a standard price of 50 cents per pound at 
railroad stations in Louisiana for them. They 
run about forty to the pound and are hence 
worth about one and one-quarter cents apiece 
wholesale, but they are not so high priced, if you 
consider that the shell is extremely thin and 
weighs but a small fraction, as much as the meat 
and nut meats are uniformly sold throughout 
the country at 45 to 75 cents per pound, and 
here is a nut that is practically all nut meat and 
can always be had fresh, from the fact that 
there is no trouble whatever to crack the shell 
and extract the kernel unbroken and free from 
pith. It will be many, many years before the 
average American will have a chance to even 
buy these nuts. As there are so few trees in 
bearing, or even planted, it will be many years 
before there are enough to supply the table of 
the rich, and it seems they must be supplied be- 
fore ordinary people can buy. 

It is a matter of record that mature wild pe- 
can trees have yielded from one hundred pounds 
per tree to twelve hundred pounds per tree, de- 
pending upon the size of trees and the crop sea- 



Ill 



son, the crop from exceptional wild trees having 
been sold at from $75.00 to $100.00 per tree; 
but there is great irregularity in the size, value 
and annual yield of wild trees. 

In tame orchards, where the trees come from 
the nursery, having been propagated from one 
of these wonderful nature's hybrids, the nuts of 
which we have described above, all the uncer- 
tainties of the wild groves are eliminated and 
commercial pecan orchards are assured, com- 
merce meaning uniformity, regularity and assur- 
ance of profit ; for all of us who are engaged in 
commerce know that the wild, whether man, beast 
or vegetation, cannot compete with culture in 
its full sense, hence it naturally follows that 
the tame or cultivated pecan orchard is the per- 
manent thing of the future and the wild pecan 
eventually a matter of history. Moreover, culti- 
vation means the selection of that which is good 
in the wild, the improving and perpetuation of 
its best qualities, the elimination of its defects 
and the eventual production and distribution of 
same to meet the demands its excellence will 
create throughout the world. 

The wild must pay, and pay well, or it will not 
be made permanent by cultivation. The large 
profits derived from the gathering of wild pe- 
cans was the incentive that started the tame 
groves into existence. Of the fancy paper-shell 
pecan trees now bearing, it is common for them 
under twenty years of age, to yield crops that 
sell for $50.00 to $80.00 per tree wholesale to 
the trade. Another point in favor of tame or- 
chards is that a uniform size, shape and color 
aid greatly in the salability and permanency <'t 
price. Obeying this rule, growers of oranges, 
lemons, peaches, etc., make each package contain 
a uniform size, for in commerce the eye delights 
in uniformity. A barrel of wild pecans from up 
country contains all sizes and shapes. Barrels 
of fancy pecans are beautiful for their size and 
uniformity. An owner of a fancy paper-shell 
pecan orchard has the satisfaction of knowing 
that every year his trees are larger, his crop of 
nuts increased and profits multiplied as the years 
go by, while in the ordinary deciduous orchard, 
he is continually thinking of the time when his 
orchard will perish. A pecan orchard at ten to 
twelve years old will give you a net income of 
$100.00 and upwards per acre per annum, which 
would be equivalent to a peach orchard in its 
prime, but a peach orchard at ten years old :s 
rapidly going into decline, while your pecan or- 
chard is really just started in commercial bear- 



ing and is good for over a hundred years, getting 
better and better, so you can rest assured as time 
goes on that your orchard will yield you, con- 
servatively, $500.00 per acre per annum. 

SAFETY OF INVESTMENT 

In the first place, the great majority of our 
customers pay for their orchard with a compara- 
tively small amount of money down and a small- 
er amount monthly. It takes the cash payment, 
together with a number of monthly payments 
in even cover the cost of the land on which we 
plant your orchard. Then there is the cost of 
pecan trees, which are worth on the market $1.50 
to $2.50 apiece, together with continuous culti- 
vation and attention. All this takes money. So 
that it is only after a large investment on our 
part and a considerable lapse of time, that we 
begin to realize a profit for our investment and 
work. In the meantime you have had the most 
ample time to visit your orchard and see where 
the money that you have been paying in has been 
spent. This is not true of hardly any other in- 
vestment offered to the general public. 

YOUR MONEY BACK 
Again, our experience, covering many years 
in planting orchard for the general public, has 
shown that a large percentage of people are im- 
patient of the time required from the planting to 
the bearing point of an orchard, hence they are 
willing and anxious to pay a large advance on 
the price of an orchard to be planted, if they can 
secure an orchard one, two, three or more years 
old ; hence we have always been able, after a cus- 
tomer's orchard has been planted six months, to 
dispose of same and give him back the money 
he has paid in, plus a good fair interest for the 
time the money has run, at the same time giving 
us a reasonable profit for re-selling same, so 
that there never has been a time when our cus- 
tomers, if they saw fit, could not get out of our 
orchard proposition with their money back and 
a fair profit. This also is quite different from 
nearly every investment proposition offered to 
you, for if not from personal experience, your 
friends have repeatedly gone into investments 
that it was a very hard thing to get out of with 
their money back, even after a long time. It is 
bound to be a satisfaction to you to know that 
it is almost as easy to get out of our orchard 
propositions as it is to get in. We have always 
made it a rule not to hold out false hopes to 




Photograph of a section of pecan orchard, taken in winter time 



any of our customers and we do not make state- 
ments that can be taken in two or more ways. 
We arc careful about making statements, but 
when we make them we want them to lie fully 
understood and we stand by them. Now, we do 
not guarantee to sell your orchard and give you 
hack your money and a profit, but from a suc- 
cessful experience, covering many years, we are 
satisfied that we can do in the future, as we have 
in the past. That is, we sell your orchard for a 
large advance over original price. If all of our 
customers wished to sell out, of course, we could 
not do this, but there are only a comparatively 
few who ever do wish to sell out, hence, we al- 
ways have many more people willing to buy 
planted orchard at an advance than customers 
desiring to sell. The above can he verified to 



anyone's satisfaction by our many customers of 
the past. 

NOT BEING ABLE TO MAKE 
MONTHLY PAYMENTS 

According to our contract with purchaser, he 
has four months' grace on his payments. It fre- 
quently happens that a customer, through 
sickness, lack of employment, or the many mis- 
fortunes that are likely t" befall all of us at 
times, finds it impossible to meet his payments 
inside the time limit and still does not wish to 
have us forfeit his contract or re-sell his di- 
ehard to someone else, and being satisfied with 
(lie investment, desires to retain same. In cases 
of this kind, he has uniformly been granted rea- 
sonable extensions of time even to one year or 



12 



more, when the case was particularly acute, it 
being necessary, however, in order to gain this 
extension of time, for the party desiring same to 
fully satisfy us that the facts are as represented 
in regard to his misfortunes. So far. we never 
have been imposed on by our customers, having 
always found that their statements were true, 
and a number of our customers today appreciate 
our leniency in this respect. But, as stated in 
the preceding paragraph, if the majority of our 
customers required this extension of time, we 
could not do it; but experience teaches that only 
a conrparativel\ few at a time so far have needed 
this extension, which we have always cheerful h 
granted^ 

THE MOST IMPORTANT POINT IN 
MAKING AN INVESTMENT 

There are no enterprises that will run them- 
selves successfully. It requires experienced 
management, business acumen and sterling hon- 
esty. Of these three, from the investor's stand- 
point, honesty is the all-important one, for with- 
out it the investment is bound to be lost. Many 
people believe that national hanking laws make 
a national banker honest, that state laws make 
the state banker honest, and so on rnd so on; 
but no laws made by man have ever been able 
to prevent a dishonest man wrecking the busi- 
ness in his charge. Human safeguards are good 
as far as they go, but the only real safeguard is 
the integrity of the man managing your funds. 
And about the only way to reasonably judge of 
the integrity of men is their record of years' 
standing made in their every-dav business deals. 

The stockholders of the Southern Nut Nur- 
sery Company are composed of folks of moder- 
ate means and some of moderate wealth. The 
officers are men in the prime of life from forty 
to fifty years old, who thoroughly understand 
their business, have been successful and have 
made money for themselves and their friends. 

Although there has been talk recently of pub 
licity in corporations, we have always done so. 
Our books, our profits, our orchards, in fact all 
that we do, have been continuously open for in- 
spection and investigation by all those interested, 
and we have found that such publicity has al- 
ways paid us in satisfied customers and stock- 
holders, who have ever brought to us an increas- 
ing business. We will take pleasure in helping 
you at any time to investigate any portion of our 
business, whether officers, directors, lands or 



what not, as we have absolutely nothing to con- 
ceal and everything to gain bv publicity. 

WHY WE PLANT PECAN ORCHARDS 

On the writer's arrival in New Orleans from 
California, over twelve years ago, he saw for 
the first time, large fancy paper-shell pecans. 
Their beautiful appearance, their immense size, 
thinness of shell, smoothness of meat and re- 
markably sweet and delicate flavor captivated 
him, and in all these long years, time has not 
changed the opinion then formed, viz., that if 
these nuts could be produced in commercial 
quantities there was an immense fortune in it 
for those who embarked in their production in 
a commercial way. The writer has for years 
been engaged in the selling, planting and hand- 
ling of commercial orchards of deciduous fruit 
and only those who are familiar with this busi- 
ness, know the amount of detailed work, con- 
tinual watchfulness and forethought necessary to 
get the large results which are obtained by the 
best in that line. 

There are times when the most energetic and 
unflagging spirits will lag. This comes gener- 
ally after a large work or enterprise has been 
brought to a successful issue. This was the case 
on our arrival in Xew < )rleans. We were free 
to embark in any line of enterprise that our 
judgment saw fit to engage in. In that state of 
feeling, the pecan industry appealed to us as a 
lazy man's proposition, for we were tired to 
weariness of the minutiae of detail in selling, 
planting and handling deciduous orchards. In 
California the nut business had been the least 
arduous and the most profitable, and by all means 
the most permanent of all horticultural lines on 
that coast. 

With leisure at our command, we made ex- 
tended trips over the Gulf states. At first pleas- 
ure was as much the end sought as getting 
posted on pecans, but later on pecans pure and 
simple was the goal sought for. We heard of 
groves here, there, and yonder, of individual 
trees at widely separated places producing won- 
derful nuts, and when we arrived, thev were in- 
ferior as compared to the best we had seen. We 
found many trees in bearing where the planter 
had been led to believe that the planting of 
large fancy nuts would produce trees that would 
hear nuts similar to those planted. Uniformly 
these trees produced nuts but little better than 
common wild ones. Occasionally one of these 



BY PERMISSION OF U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE DIVISION OF POMOLOGY. 
" NUT CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES." 




una pecan 







13 



trees produced very fine nuts. These people 
were necessarily very much disappointed. We 
found people who had planted what they sup- 
posed to be grafted or budded pecans said to be 
propagated from well known famous trees, that 
were bearing common wild nuts that had never 
been grafted. < >thers were producing nuts of a 
different variety from that which they had 
planted to produce. We have made fre- 
quent trips, covering hundreds of miles, and in 
one case, over one thousand miles, to see 
young- pecan proves that did not compare in tree 
growth, cultivation nor general attention to 
those we were familiar with. ( )ccasionally we 
found successful groves and successful people, 
fine trees, fine nuts and large profits. We found 
plenty of evidence to satisfy us that the business 
was a very safe, permanent and profitable one, 
but at the same time we, with mixed feelings, 
observed the general ignorance and credulity of 
the average person who was blundering along 
in the business. The same general results were 
observed among those propagating in nurseries, 
many propagators only getting a small per cent 
of their grafts or buds to live. The propagation 
of the pecan — which is a hickory tree — was not 
easy. The business was comparatively new. 
Methods and skill more or less crude. The death 
rate in nursery was heavy, it being a common 
thing to have but ten to thirty per cent of grafts 
to live. We knew that time and skill would cor- 
rect this, and it has. 

We were satisfied that there was plenty of 
wheat and we believed that the chaff could be 
removei 1 from the wheat, hence we made up our 
minds that it was wise, before embarking in the 
business on a large scale and inducing our many 
investing customers and the general public to 
go in with us, that we would wait until the bus- 
iness became crystallized — that the different 
varieties would be tested by time and that the 
chaff would blow away and leave the genuine 
goldm wheat. So. naturally, after a time, we re- 
turned to our old orchard business, which has 
always proven extremely lucrative, but which 
required the closest attention to get the proper 
results. During these years of waiting, it is 
needless to say that we have watched the busi- 
ness in all its phases from the nursery to the 
lx-aring trees on all kinds of soils — rich first bot- 
toms, second bottoms, hillsides, hilltops, pla- 
teaux and prairies, on rich alluvial lands, on 
white coastal lands, piney wood flats, pinev wood 
hills, red clay hills and all kinds of clays, on 



semi-pine and hardwood lands, on sandy wash 
bottoms, on black wax lands ami on rice lands, 
for the pecan seems to grow everywhere when 
planted and cultivated, but with a marked dif- 
ference as to results. We have seen nurserj 
trees and seedlings grow into bearing. We have 
met hundreds of land owners who are going to 
plant a large acreage to pecans that still have 
their first pecan tree to plant, while others. 
hearing their plans, planted and now have the 
orchards. We are sure that it paid us for the 
time, trouble and expense, for we are now satis- 
fied that the chaff lias largely disappeared, the 
business has crystallized and that it is perma- 
nent It is more profitable than anything we 
know of in agriculture or horticulture and more 
permanent by far than any crop grown in North 
America. The roadway is well beaten. The 
landmarks are plain and we now start on a large 
scale to reap the reward which our observation. 
which our judgment, our experience and our pa- 
tience justify. We are not too late, for in point 
of number, the trees bearing and trees planted 
and not bearing, are as nothing to what the years 
to come will see planted..- We are not pioneers, 
for pioneering is a hard, weary and expensive 
road ; but we are in time for ourselves and cus- 
tomers to avoid tile mistakes of the infant in- 
dustry and to reap the rewards due a new but 
permanent business. 

The Southern Nut Nursery Company was or- 
ganized with three objects in view: 

First. The production of fancy paper-shell 
pecan trees on a large scale in a wholesale way. 
the trees being absolutely true to name and guar 
anteed and of the very best varieties known. 

Second. The acquiring of land best suited to 
pecan culture in thoroughly tested localities, the 
preparation of the land, the planting of the very 
best varieties of fancy pecans and the caring for 
same to maturity and the sale of said orchard 
to the general public. 

Third. The planting of orchard to be owned 
by the company itself as a permanent asset, so 
that ultimately there will be an acre of orchard 
for every share of stock issued in said company. 
the number of shares of stock in said compan) 
being three thousand, and each share being of 
the par value of $100.00. 

The first point necessary was educational so 
that those officers of the company who had not 
made a specialty of pecan study, would thor- 
oughly understand the technical and practical 
parts of the pecan industry and would personal- 



ly inspect nurseries, orchards and nut trees in 
general, so that they would fully appreciate the 
possibilities of entering into and carrying on the 
business on a mammoth scale. This had been 
done thoroughly, previous to incorporation and 
cvcrvone connected with this corporation in an 
administrative sense is now well posted on the 
business in its various departments and is person- 
ally satisfied and willing and anxious to put his 
money, time and energy to the full in carrying 
out the plans and purposes of this corporation. 
It is the intention of the stockholders of this cor- 
poration that their stock shall have a permanent 
value, based on income running through many 
years to come so that their estates shall consider 
the stock of this company one of their most lu- 
crative assets and in order that this may be so, 
the management is so trained that the death of 
anv one man or several men will not jeopardize 
the active and successful prosecution of the bus- 
iness. 

This company, in a sense, was born with a sil- 
ver spoon in its mouth, for, being the offspring 
of the Southern Orchard Planting Company it 
has the same management, the same officers and 
all the stockholders of said company in practical- 
ly the same positions as held in the parent com- 
pany. The Southern Orchard Planting Com- 
pany has been reasonably successful. It positive- 
ly has the best location for the growing of 
peaches in that great territory south of the Mis- 
souri and west of the Mississippi. For two 
years this territory was searched as with a fine 
tooth comb for a location that would give peach 
crops on off years in said territory. This was 
found and our experience for the past three 
years shows this to be true, as three years ago 
there were no peaches in this territory to speak 
of, yet a crop on this land. Last year a general 
crop throughout this territory, plenty of peaches 
at this point. This year, no peaches in said ter- 
ritory, a fair crop at this point. 

This company planted peaches for itself as a 
permanent investment. It has in addition to its 
own orchards, planted, sold and taken care of for 
others, over four hundred orchards combined 
iii one large solid body, each orchard being deed- 
ed to purchaser when paid for. This orchard 
was first sold for $100.00 per acre, later on the 
price was raised to $110.00 and finally to $125.00 
per acre. All the orchard now in bearing is not 
for sale at any reasonable price. 

Orchard two years old, is held by the owners 
at $200.00 per acre and orchard planted last win- 



ter at $150.00, very few purchasers being willing 
to sell at above figures. The Southern Orchard 
Planting Company has planted as much as it 
originally planned to plant — that is, 3,000 acres — 
and there is now no more peach orchard for sale 
by this company. The stock in this company has 
a par value of $100.00 per share. Its present price 
is over $300.00 per share and no stock for sale. In 
fact, there never has been a share of stock trans- 
ferred by original subscribers, it being the belief 
of everyone that it will eventually go to over 
$1,000.00 per share. This company has believed 
in publicity. Its books have been open at any 
and all times to those interested and its orchard 
work and orchards have been repeatedly visited 
by many people, everyone being welcome. There 
has never been a time when any purchaser on 
monthly payments in said company could not 
sell out his holdings, after holding six months, 
at a substantial advance in price and his money 
back with a good profit. There have always 
been more people willing to buy planted orchard 
than there have been those willing to sell their 
holdings. Where the Southern Orchard Plant- 
ing Company stopped off in the handling of new 
business, the Southern Nut Nursery Company, 
full fledged, starts in. What one set of men has 
repeatedly and successfully done, it ought to 
be able to do equally as well, if not better, again. 
The first nursery of the Southern Nut Nur- 
Company is located at Lafayette, Louisiana, 
about twenty miles south of our pecan orchard 
lands. This nursery has four hundred thousand 
young pecan seedlings and a large number of 
trees propagated from the very choicest well- 
known and standard varieties. It is the inten- 
tion of the company to make this the largest by 
far of any nursery in existence of its kind. The 
company is now in process of acquiring nurser- 
ies in Texas, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida, 
with the idea that trees grown under similiar cli- 
matic conditions are best suited to the planter, 
at the same time a great saving in freight and 
express charges. The growing of our own seed- 
lings and the propagation of same, direct from 
bearing trees of known pedigree, always assure 
us that we can depend upon our orchards when 
they come into bearing being absolutely true to 
name. Shakespeare very aptly states that "Of 
all things, to thine own self be true, hence it must 
follow as the day the night, that thou canst not 
then be false to any man." We have been too 
familiar with the pecan nursery and seed busi- 
ness for years not to appreciate to the full the 



IS 



above. We are extremely sorry and sympathetic 
for those who have planted seed pecans and false 
nursery stock and have waited years to find that 
they have been cruelly deceived in quality and 
variety. We certainly do not intend to deceive 
ourselves. 

A WORD OF CAUTION 

There is one point which we wish particularly 
to impress upon the minds of the reader and one 
which we wish von would continue to remember 
and that is that all permanent things, all good 
things, all desirable things are in the end ex- 
tremely simple. We knew that nearh everyone 
to whom this pamphlet will go will be new to 
the pecan industry and naturally, on becoming in- 
terested, will, as everv wise person should, trv to 
obtain all the available data from the various 
sources possible to post themselves, so that they 
will be in a position to determine what will he 
tlir proper thing for them to do in this matter. 
The amount of literature on the subject is mea- 
gre and usually deals in glittering generalities. 
Rut as a matter of fact, there is not so much to 
write about when the truth is fully known. Cer- 
tain trees produce these superior nuts. They are 
now propagated by budding and grafting in nur- 
series. The trees are planted and cultivated the 
same as any other ordinary orchard should be 
and should beq-in henrine- in a moderate * v av at 
five to six years old, when they practically re- 
quire no further attention. There is bound to 
be a permanent literature on the pecan industry. 
This takes time. There are manv keen men in 
this business. Thev attend strictlv to business. 
They plant, thev cultivate, they produce on in- 
creasing ratio, but they seek not publicity. In 
the end all things are simnle. Pecan propaga- 
tion and orchard production are simple in the 
extreme. A few simple observances in the aid 
of nature, industry, patience and common ster- 
ling honestv are all that are ncr-ess^rv to be suc- 
cessful in this most lucrative of pursuits. We 
feel it necessary, even at the risk of hcine tedious 
and seemingly pedantic, to warn our readers so 
that they will go to the bottom of all thev read 
on this subject from whatever source, including 
our own. As this business is to be a permanent 
one for ourselves and for our offspring for a 
hundred years, it is meet that we should know 
what we are doing before entering in. 



METHOD OF HANDLING ORCHARD 

In the first place, the pecan nuts are ripe in 
Louisiana about the first of November. As soon 
as they are gathered, they are bedded by the nur- 
serymen in layers of earth, the nuts being in 
stratas two or three inches thick. This is an im- 
itation of the nut dropping from the tree and be- 
ing buried by rain wash in the forest litter. In the 
early spring — which begins here usually in Feb- 
ruary — the nursery ground having been put in a 
fine mechanical condition, the nuts are sowed in 
drills, the drills being four feet apart and the 
nuts in drill from four to eight inches apart and 
covered about an inch and one-half to two in- 
ches deep. The nuts do not germinate all at the 
same time, but many of them come through the 
ground weeks and months later than those first 
appearing. The first shoot is quite tender and 
has to lie handled delicately. Those shoots com- 
ing through the ground late in the season, are 
apt to be injured by dry weather. 

If care is taken a fair percentage of the seed- 
lings germinate and live. The first year's 
growth of a seedling above ground is small and 
spindling, running from a few inches to sixteen 
inches high, but the root is enormous as compared 
with the trunk above ground, being on an average 
in bulk twenty times lartrcr. The second vear the 
trunk grows more rapidly in proportion than the 
root and that winter the larger seedling trees are 
fit for root grafting. The third vear nearly all 
the seedlings are large enough to graft. One 
season's growth from graft generally puts the 
tree in shape for the market. Tt is safe in saving 
that generally trees put on the market are four 
years from seed. These trees in the nurserv have 
received intense cultivation and proper fertiliza- 
tion. The root of the pecan is vcrv large, hence in 
planting an orchard large holes are required so as 
to leave the roots in the natural position in which 
they crew. We make it a rule to hoe trees re- 
peatedly so that no mules, cultivators or plows 
come in contact with the tree. The trees are pro- 
tected against rabbits until grown to sufficient 
age that the bark has become tough. This should 
be done tin to the end of the fifth year. 

Although the propagation of pecan trees and 
growing of them to bearing are simple, thev re- 
quire close, practical common sense attention for 
the first five vears. After they begin bearing, 
thev require absolutely no attention whatever. 
The tree beins: a forest tree, prunes itself and be- 
ing planted far apart, it is absolutely sym- 
metrical growing in almost a perfect cone shape. 



n; 



Hence, after we turn the orchard over to our 
customers, there is nothing for them to do in the 
way of cultivation or attention more than seeing 
that the nuts are gathered at the proper time. 

This company will be pleased to enter into con- 
tracts with owners of pecan orchards after the 
first five years, for periods of three, five and ten 
\ears for a very moderate percentage of the 
crops, gathering the nuts, packing them for ship- 
ment and selling same, remitting net proceeds to 
the owners ; also attending to taxes and in fact 
evervthing necessary as though we owned the 
orchard ourselves. We have done it for many 
hundreds of customers in the past and are quite 
willing to do it for you. Although we say the 
raising of a pecan orchard is simple enough, yet 
at the same time, evervthing worth anything re- 
quires close, careful and practical management to 
get the best results. < )ur reputation of over 
twenty years standing is a guarantee that all of 
our orchards receive such attention. 

AN UNNECESSARY QUESTION 

Many, without thinking, when a proposition is 
presented to them, showing large profits, ask if 
it is such a good proposition and so profitable, 
why do you not keep it yourself instead of sell- 
ing it ? If this principle were correct, there would 
be" no Southern Nut Nursery Company, com- 
posed of many individuals. It would be a "one- 
man" business. Again, if we had the necessary 
money to plant all the orchard we wished to 
plant, we would have none for sale. We wish 
to plant orchard for you to make a reasonable 
profit, so that we can plant more orchard for 
ourselves. It is practically impossible in com- 
merce to work for yourself alone. You must 
buy, you must produce, you must sell. It is 
financially and physically an impossibility for us 
to plant all the orchard we want for ourselves 
and we are positive it is a good thing for you, as 
you have a chance to have orchard planted for 
you by a responsible and successful company and 
your daily life is affected not in the least except 
to the extent of what money you invest. 

OUR PROPOSITION 

Our proposition is a simple one. We are pre- 
pared as contractors to furnish the land and nur- 
sery stock, propagated from the very best stand- 
ard fancy paper-shell pecan varieties, and plant 
and give practical and scientific cultivation and 
attention for a period of five years for anyone 
who wishes to buy. Price per acre, cash, $140.00 ; 



on time, $150.00 per acre. The terms are $l().(Mi 
per acre cash, $2.50 per acre per month, no in- 
terest being charged on deferred payments. It 
takes one cash payment of $100.00 and fifty-six 
monthly payments of $2.50 each to pay up. 
Parties buying on time have four months grace 
on their payments. They also may pay as much 
in advance at any time as they see fit. They 
may also pay quarterly, semi-annually or annual- 
ly, but in all cases where payments are made 
less often than once a month, said payments 
must be paid in advance ; that is, if you are 
paying quarterly, your first payment would be 
$17.50 per acre. Three months later you 
would pay $7.50, and $7.50 each succeeding 
quarter. 

We will issue deed at any time that orchard 
has been paid for in full. When sold on time. 
we issue a bond for deed. This is a simple, plain 
business contract, fully legal and binding. In 
this bond for deed, it is set out fully that we 
agree to pay you four per cent per annum, pay- 
able annually on any and all moneys that are paid 
on said orchard contract for the true time said 
money has been in our possession for a period 
not exceeding five years from date of contract. 
( )n the completion of payments, warranty deed 
will be issued, and of course thereafter the own- 
er will receive all the income derived from said 
land. It is necessary in order to give an in- 
come during the long interval required for pe- 
cans to come into bearing, to have side crops on 
said land while orchard is growing. We have 
to cultivate and tend to the orchard continuously 
for the first five years and we can at the same 
time economically handle crops among the grow- 
ing trees, we making it a point to grow those 
crops that do not affect the growth and develop- 
ment of 'the pecan trees in the least, and we feel 
that it is no more than just that the purchaser 
should get his share of said crops, being based 
entirely on the amount of money he has paid in. 
In the beginning, he has very little money in- 
vested, hence does not receive as large an amo'-nt 
as he does towards the close of his contract, but 
the last year you might say that he gets prac- 
tically the total income from the land. This is 
covered absolutely in an equitable way by pay- 
ing four per cent per annum on all moneys paid 
in by him to us, interest being computed on the 
true time his money is with us. 

It is not our desire or purpose to make money 
on the field crops only to the extent of covering 
our own investment and as fast as your money 




\i\ tree tweuty-fiv 



takes tin' place of our money, which is invested 
in the land, trees and so on, you get practically 
all the land produces. 

Now the price of paper-shell pecan orchard 
has been well established. At five years did, it 
has a valuation of $300.00 per acre. Now, for 
this first five years, you have received four per 
cent per annum on your money. in addition 
thereto the value of your orchard has doubled, 
making an increase of LOO per cent during five 
years, or twent) per cent per annum. Twenty 
per cent with the four per cent you have re- 
ceived is equivalent to twenty-four per cent per 
annum for the first five years. The next five 
wars, making ten years from the time of plant- 
ing, the orchard is worth SI. 1.00 per acre, and 

for the second period of five years you get the 
total income from the land and orchard, which 



should he much more than four per cent. The 
next ten years — making twenty years from plant- 
ing — the Orchard is extremely cheap at $3,500.00 
per acre and you have for \ears been receiving 
a very high percentage on this valuation from 
nut crops and still own your own orchard w irth 
$3,500.00 an acre, or more. You can figure the 
percentage yourself after the first five years. 

The above statements are correct and you do 
not need to halve them or quarter them as so 
many people do when the) go to figuring large 
percentages of profit. 1 know you are very apt 
to say that if they are one-quarter as good as 
stated above, they would he good enough for you. 
But after you have received them, they would 
nol he too good for you and you would he highly 
incensed if they were less. 




We consider that when we invest our money in 
pecan orchards and wait a long time before our 
trees come into bearing, even though the crops 
pay us four per cent per annum on our invest- 
ment while we wait, we are deserving of a very 
large increase in value of the property and also 
a large annual income from the nuts, And as 
stated in the beginning of this pamphlet in the 
seven reasons why you should buy, the reason 
you receive these profits is because of the long 
time required for a pecan orchard to come into 
maturity ; for the great majority of people have 
neither the judgment nor the patience to do as 
we are doing and as we hope you will do. 



PRICES, TERMS, ETC. 
Any number of acres can be purchased as follows: 
Price per acre .... $140.00 spot cash 

" " ... 150.00 on monthly payments 

Terms, - - • $10.00 cash payment per acre 

2.5U per month per acre 
No interest, 4 mouths grace on monthly notes. Pur- 
chaser secured by Bond for deed. We pay 4 percent per 
annum on money paid in, first five years. 

Correspondence solicited and all questions cheerfully 
and fully answered. 

SOUTHERN NUT NURSERY CO., 

Room 20 Water Works Building, 

Kansas City, Mo. 



FEN I, VIDl 



tf 



I!) 



(/ came, I saw) 



Kansas City, Mo., June 24, 1905. 
Southern Nut Nursery Company, 

Kansa-. City", Mo. 
Gentlemen : 

About three years ago I became interested in the 
peach orchard being planted by The Southern Orchard 
Planting Company in Southwestern Arkansas, and after 
a personal investigation of the orchard and of the 
personnel of the Company, I contracted with them to 
plant an orchard for me, myself and family, taking 
forty acres in a club of railroad men representing 375 
acres. I am the president of this Club and have made 
a number of trips to inspect the work going on. It is 
a satisfaction for me to tell you that the work was 
carried on both in the letter and the spirit. 

So good is the quality of the orchard, that we have 
had repeated offers to sell out, the orchard having 
cost us $100.00 per acre. Some time since I refused 
$150.00 per acre and now the orchard is worth much 
more than it was then. I have no intention of selling. 
Furthermore, there has never been a time since we pur- 
chased the orchard that we could not have sold out 
individually or as a club, for considerably more than 
we put in. Myself and family expect to have you 
plant a fancy paper-shell pecan orchard for us as soon 
as we can get to it. I am, 

Very respectfully yours, 

Henry M. Marshall, 

1215 Forest Ave., Kansas City, Mo. 



i in this investment I have received above all expenses: 

1902, $1,331.00 or 133 1-3 per cent net profit. 

1903, 221.00 or 21 per cent net profit. 

1904, 1,100.00 or 110 per cent net profit. 

1905, 1,113.00 or 110 per cent net profit. 

I his, you will observe, is just a trifle over 93 per 
cent each year for four years in succession. Of course, 
this is an excellent showing, but one that is my own 
personal experience. When, over two years ago, our 
general manager, Mr. E. M. Treakle, first offered the 
general public a chance to purchase orchards in South- 
west Arkansas, I was, of course, one of the first to take 
advantage of the opportunity. By careful economy, 
which has caused me many personal sacrifices, I now 
own eighty acres of peach orchard in the Southern Or- 
chard Planting Company. Two hundred dollars per acre 
would hardly tempt me to part with my investment. 
The same officers, with the same general manager of 
the above company, are the officers and manager of the 
Southern Nut Nursery Company, whose object is the 
propagation of the pecan and the building of pecan 
orchards for the general public. 

Let me say that after seven years of careful study 
of the pecan industry and a number of months of in- 
vestigation in the heart of the pecan zone, I am fully 
convinced that the pecan industry, under the direction 
of the Southern Nut Nursery Company, is a more per- 
manent, more profitable and more satisfactory form of 
investment than the peach proposition, even with the 
most excellent showing that the peach proposition has 
made for me. Yours very truly, 

F. C. Bingham, 
31 South Seventh St., Kansas City, Kans. 



Kansas City, Kans., June 26, 1905. 
To Whom It May Concern: 

Do you desire a safe and profitable investment? If 
so, I beg to submit to you a few facts concerning my 
own personal experience. For twenty years I was 
pastor of some church in the Baptist denomination. 
Throat trouble demanded that I should at least tem- 
porarily give up the active pastorate. During these 
twenty years I saw the necessity of laying up a small 
portion of my salary. This, early in my pastorates, I 
began to do. The first few years I was unfortunate in 
investing what I had saved, but a few years ago I was 
convinced that there was money in peach culture, if 
only a company could be found that was responsible 
and one that would carry out its contracts. This I 
found in a company organized by the present general 
manager of the Southern Nut Nursery Company and 
located in Central Mississippi. After due investiga- 
tion, 1 purchased ten acres of peach land and had it 
set out to peaches. The last four years this orchard 
has borne a crop — three good crops and one poor crop. 
The profit to me. without any care, trouble or over- 
sight on my part, was as follows : 

10 acres at $100.00 per acre, $1,000.00. 



Kansas City, Mo., June 24, 1905. 
To Whom It May Concern: 

I have had business dealings with the Southern Or- 
chard Planting Company for some time. I have twenty 
acres of Elberta peaches and have made three trips to 
the orchard and find the Company have carried out all 
promises made and can say in all truthfulness that they 
are conducting an immense commercial peach orchard 
in a scientific and practical manner for themselves, 
myself and others. The property has practically 
doubled in value and many people wish to buy, but it is 
almost impossible to find anyone that wants to sell, 
the Company having sold all they intended to. I have 
two acres of pecans and intend to have a larger acre- 
age of them later on. 

I am more than satisfied and am sure that any state- 
ments made, or contracts entered into, by the Southern 
N T ut Nursery Company, which is practically the same 
as the old company, will be carried out better than they 
represent it. Respectfully, 

\V L Patrick 
3023 Cherry St., Kansas City, Mo. 



•2d 



Nebraska City, Neb.. June 15, 1905. 
Southern Nut Nursery Company, 

Kansas City, Mo. 
Gentlemen : 

Last year I purchased an orchard of the Southern 
Orchard Planting Company and on account of my 
whole family, including myself, becoming seriously ill, 
we had to modify our contract so as to keep same from 
forfeiture. This you did without any hesitation, thus 
enabling us to go on and as the orchard is now worth 
twice what we contracted to pay for it, we are con- 
sequently highly pleased with our investment. 

I am satisfied you will be as successful in your pecan 
orchard as you have been in your other orchards and 
believe that you will be as lenient in dealing with pur- 
chasers, who later on have misfortunes, as you have 
been with me and others I have heard of. 

Thanking you, I am, 

Very gratefully yours, 

Mrs. Eva A. Jennings. 



Hiawatha, Kans., June 26, 1905. 
Mr. E. M. Treakle, 

Kansas City, Mo. 
Dear Sir: 

It has been my good fortune to have been acquainted 
with some of the officers of the Southern Orchard 
Planting Company for many years and I have the utmost 
confidence in their integrity and business ability. This 
led me to purchase ten acres of peach orchard and later 
on an additional ten acres. The peach orchard has 
proven a very attractive investment to me, having great- 
ly enhanced in value. I have also had them plant ten 
acres of pecan orchard for me and will have ten acres 
more planted at a later date. 

I was raised on a farm, have been county treasurer 
of this county for two terms, and am now connected 
with the First National Bank of this place, in which 
positions I have had opportunity of meeting investors 
and investments and my experience with them leads 
me to believe that pecan orchard with the Southern 
Nut Nursery Company will be among the most desir- 
able of investments. 

Yours truly, 

J. F. Meisenheimer. 



To Whom It May Concern : 

Having preached over twenty years as a "Home Mis- 
sionary," mostly in pioneer work, together with my 
inclination for travel, I have enjoyed a wide range 
of observation in regard to the industries of this great 
country and a large acquaintance with men — especially 
business men. 

I have visited nearly every state in the Union from 
Massachusetts to California and from Texas to Min- 



nesota and have noted opportunities for profitable in- 
vestments. In 1903 my attention was called to the 
work of the Southern Orchard Planting Company in 
Arkansas. Having observed the methods of successful 
California fruit-growers for ten years, I was interested 
at once and after a full explanation of the business, I 
contracted for ten acres of orchard. 

After making a careful investigation of the Company, 
their methods of doing business, and of the peach 
lands, making two trips into Arkansas for this purpose. 
I became so well satisfied that I recommended the 
Company to my friends and they have invested about 
$50,000.00 in peach orchards with this Company and I 
have increased my holdings to thirty acres. So far as 
I know, my friends are pleased with the investment. 
My only wish is now that I had known of such an op- 
portunity when I was younger. 

The personnel of the Southern Nut Nursery Company 
is practically the same as that of the Southern Orchard 
Planting Company. I am personally acquainted with 
them and have carefully examined their financial, busi- 
ness and moral standing. 

For years I have made a special study of the con- 
ditions necessary to increase a small capital and have 
come to the conclusion that they are : 

First. The employment of our meagre annual 
savings. 

Second. The assurance of skillful management. 

Third. Confidence in the integrity of the men whom 
we trust with our funds. 

Fourth. A reasonable prospect of unearned incre- 
ment. 

Fifth. Practical certainty of increasing annual 
returns. 

Sixth. The element of permanency with decreasing 
expenses. 

Seventh. The opportunity of disposing of our hold- 
ings at a profit at any time, if necessary. 

To my knowledge, there is nothing that so nearly 
meets the above conditions as the pecan industry as 
outlined and conducted by the Southern Nut Nursery 
Company. 

One feature deserves special attention — namely, that 
your capital of $150.00 begins to increase at once and 
continues annually until it reaches $3,500.00. Also that 
the Company generously pays 4 per cent on the money 
invested and after five years the per cent of returns 
rapidly increases annually. 

As an evidence of my faith in this business, I have 
contracted with this Company and look forward to 
profitable returns from a ten-acre pecan grove in 
Louisiana. 

J. C. Lynn, Pastor. 
First United Presbyterian Church. 
Kansas City, Kans. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



000 918 888 5 41 




Pecan Tree Known to be Oyer 100 Years 
Old, 17 Feet in Circumference, 5 Feet 
Above Ground. Still Healthy and Pro- 
ductive. 



